Hello everyone Welcome to our new 2009 challenge.

If you were not in our last challenge, EVERYONE is welcome! This is a very supportive, upbeat group! And if you were in the last challenge WELCOME back!

So if you want to challenge yourself to be healthier and try to lose some of those pesky pounds... lets do this! Or even challenge yourself to maintain your weight, we are all in this together!


Our Mini Goal will be Valentines Day Saturday Feb 14, 09

The End of our Challenge will be St. Patricks Day Tuesday March 17, 08


Our new weigh in day will be every Friday. So if you want to put your weight up by Friday Jan 2nd, we will start our new thread!

This is a good one. I have a Birthday challenge for myself but since we are doing another one I would rather be with the group!
I want to be able to wear this cute black skirt I have on Valentines Day.. that is going to be part of my goal. I can get it on a zipped now, however its quite tight.

Yea New Year! Thanks for switching the weigh-in days Jill, maybe I'll stick with it better now .

Thank you for starting this. I'm looking forward to challenging myself to finally make my goal of wearing a size 8 this year. My pants-o-meter is indicating that I put on some holidays pounds so I'll be happy to get them off and get back on track.

Looking forward to starting a new challenge! This one didn't go so well; I'm a little nervous about getting on the scale! I haven't been thinking about how much I've been eating since before I left on vacation. And exercise? Not so much.

Bring on a healthier, slimmer 2009!

I'm definitely in this time! The weight will be up an awful lot the day after new years, but it should comeof easy to. I've ordered both mc dougall and Ornish books so a new diet plan should be ready by then!

Yeah I'm ready for a new challenge to! Last challenge was a flop for me!

So who has New Years resolutions? I know many people don't like to make resolutions, but I love it. The only two I've ever stuck with were to become vegetarian and then vegan. I promised myself I'd try it for six weeks (till my birthday) and if it didn't work, I wouldn't beat myself up.

Also, I love making long term resolutions. I love making notes and lists and planning. Whether I stick with it or not is besides the point. I just like the feeling of "everything is possible" by making resolutions.

So, my resolutions this year are to:

Not drink any alcohol at all the month of January

Lose 60 lbs already! Even if I only lose a pound a week, I'd lose 52 lbs in a year. I will do this by--
-working out 5-6 days weekly for at least 30 minutes
-eating very lightly my last meal of the day (I felt so much better when I
was doing this--I also seemed to lose a bit of weight, but I need to work
out my calories better)
-Limit alcoholic beverages to one night a week

We have some financial goals as well which may be harder.
Save 3 months living expenses this year. My husbands job is fairly safe,
but who knows what life will bring.

We'll do this by only eating out once every 6 weeks, not taking a vacation this year and really thinking about what we're spending our money on. Well my husband needs to think about what he's spending money on. I will have to stay strong and say NO! That man loves to buy stuff.

And my final resolution is to get paid for writing. I'm going to write a book. It's a book I've been thinking about for a long time, and I think it's ready to be put on paper. I'm also going to try to get some of my articles published. I've been afraid to try because I was afraid to be rejected, but I figured out, I will be rejected. Lots of times. But maybe I will eventually not get rejected.

Well, that's my year in a nutshell. Anyone else want to share?

I love to read, but I never do. So, my resolution this year is to read 20 novels. I never take the time to pick up a book, but I find after I do it relaxes me.
Every year I make a weight loss resolution, but I had a long term goal before New Years and Im just going to stick to that to take off the weight loss resolution pressure. I just want to be pre-pregnancy weight within 9 months of my sons birth (so I have 4 months to lost 20 lbs) and then I would like to have lost 100lbs by his first birthday (so thats an additional 30lbs by July) The 100lb goal is not set in stone because that is a lot to accomplish.
But those are my only two goals this year. Although I love your goal of 3 months savings! I may have to steal that one.

I so need to be a joiner on this one. 2008 was the year of the great weight re-gain. I'm gonna go update my ticker. *sigh*

I've been getting back into running and yoga class. Gotta start going to power pump 2x/week like I was before, I think that was helping me maintain more than I knew. I really like sleeping later, but if I don't go to the gym in the morning I don't go at all, it just doesn't work with my schedule. It's easier for me when I can go run after work with the dogs, but in the winter that's just not do-able. Looks like I'll be spending many early mornings on the treadmill. Sometimes I really wish I was a morning person.

I'm planning my training schedule for my first half-marathon in late May. Registering for races usually helps me stay on track, hopefully that'll be the case this time. It's a longer training period and a longer race than anything I've done before, probably just what I need, gotta push myself!

Diet plans are to record everything that I eat/drink, drink less beer (tough one for me, my husband is a prolific home brewer), eat more fruits and veggies, use less added fat in cooking, watch portions, use more whole grains instead of breads and refined grains, and no late night snacking.

Good resolutions ladies! Mine are to build up to a 5 mile run at least 3x a week, to make it to yoga at least once and ideally twice a week and to drink a tad less. I'd be drunk all the time if I had a homebrewer Shananigans! My biggest issue with drinking (other then the calories of course) is that I've not managed to quit smoking while drinking. I've pretty much got it licked except for that. Baby steps, baby steps. Oh and I plan to move the hades out of NC in 2009, well if the economy doesn't crash more and there are no jobs elsewhere.

I'm weighing in tomorrow morning for the biggest loser competition and I KNOW I'm not going to like what I see. It'll be my time to fess up also. ick ick ick

I would love to join... but I have a small issue. I'm not entirely vegetarian, although I'd say 90% of the time I eat a vegan diet. I crave tuna though ...anyway, that's not my problem.

Starting in mid January my doctor is putting me on a special diet to help get rid of kidney stones. This means I have to cut out foods containing high amounts of oxalate entirely. ...Any ideas how to continue functioning? High oxalate foods include: spinach, soy (ALL soy products), brussel sprouts, most beans ...ugh. the list goes on. I'm also allergic to milk---so I have no idea how to eat without eating meat while on this diet. Any suggestions?

Wow Mxgirl that's rough. I'm a little confused as I've always read/heard that kidney stones are generally caused by a diet too high in protein? As far as what to eat there is seitan which contains no soy, lentils are low oxolate and very versatile. For milk what about rice milk? I think rice is low oxolate - not sure how that would translate into the milk. Of course your health is of upmost importance but I'd seriously be gettting a 2nd/3rd opinion before I started scarfing down hamburgers. The long term effects of too much meat scare me too much, not to mention I honestly don't think I could eat an animal at all now.

I joined the last challenge but never checked back in. I plan to do better this time around.

My resolutions are to (1) take my glucophage meds daily, (2) exercise at least 3 days a week, (3) plan, plan, plan.

My challenge goal will be 10 pounds.

Hey everyone!

Sorry I disappeared for the last week. I flew home on the 21st and my family is adjusting to my veganism much better than I expected. We went on a ski/snowboarding trip (what a fun way to get a workout) and my mom researched restaurants before we left to find one that would have food options available for me. I've also been baking a lot, which I love. I made a vegan chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for my boyfriend's dads birthday and it was a big hit. Then I made vegan carrot cake and pumpking bread. I've put on a pound or two, but I'm not worrying about it now. Once I move back into my apartment on my own I'll be able to eat better, since now I eat mostly with my family and we've been eating out a lot. I think my goal is to maintain for now and focus on finding healthy and nutritious foods to cook. I just bought 2 vegan cookbooks so I'm going to start exploring new recipes. I want to try tempeh and I need to figure out all the uses for tofu. Hope everyone had a great christmas (I got new games for my wii, including DDR which should be another fun way to workout. Yay!) and has a fun and safe new years eve tonight.

Dee